Project BAMSFH™ - Part 3

I keep forgetting to update this thing... and get pictures. 

There has been some good forward progress on the Project BadAssMotorScooterFromHELL!!!!™ bike. Most of the fuel system is still apart waiting in some last minute stuff to ship in to me. Today I will be picking up the replacement main fuel hose between the main tank and the secondary tank. They call it the reserve tank, but since all fuel has to flow down from the main tank to the reserve tank, it's really more of a secondary part of the whole system. Anywho... I got parts coming in for that. The weekends have been full with my other hobby taking up most of my time and a special project in that one taking up my nights and weekends. That project is 99.9% done at least so I will have more "free time" to work on this project. 

Let's see... where was I? Oh yeah, I picked up the rebuild kits for the Brake and Clutch Master cylinders and started tearing those apart one by one. I started with the clutch as it was not as bad off as the brake and I figured it would take less time to get it done and out of the way. Turns out it was cleaner than the brake master, but not by much. I got everything apart and cleaned and back together after a little bit of fiddling with the snap rings. My snap ring pliers (adjustable ones) kept getting in the way while trying to reach down into the master cylinder. Eventually I found the angle that worked best and got the old snap rings out. I highly recommend getting a pair of long nose snap ring pliers over the adjustable ones. Up till now it was a non-issue, but it could have sent me off to the store to buy tools had I not found a working angle. The masters themselves were relatively good shape once I got the old brake fluid and crystals off. My sight glasses on both are dark, but still visible and there is a kit I can pick up online to replace them if I need to.

Now for the things that sucked...

I picked up a pair of valved bleeder screws that supposedly make bleeding brakes/clutch easier as you don't have to try to juggling the timing of opening and closing the screw and pumping the handles. As I started to try to bleed the clutch system, I quickly realized that the bleeder screws were doing nothing. Or at least they didn't seem to be doing anything. After a few online searches, I discovered that they are NOT designed for a system full of air. They are designed for a mostly fluid full system with a little bit of air. Sigh... OK so I can use them, just not for this part of the job. I found a couple of links on a Reverse Bleeding process that I will be trying this weekend that will use those bleeder screws but pushes fluid up from the banjo through the lines and into the master reservoir. I'm hoping that this will do two things, first it will push out any remaining crystals in the line as well as bad fluid. Second, it will get the air out and allow me to actually use the valved bleeder screws. I did do a once over on the Clutch Slave cylinder and it looked dirty but OK. Once I get some pressure back into the lines I will take it off again and try to push the piton there out. It looked dirty, but a rebuild might not be needed if all the seals look OK. I didn't want to force it out just yet and possibly damage it. 

I also started to bleed the brake line side and was not making any progress at all. Frustrated, I decided to pull the calipers as I needed to do a once over on those as well. The calipers were pretty nasty as well, with the pistons not coming out at all until I tried to (as delicately as I could) yank them out by hand. I need to do a light polishing of them prior to reassembly to make sure I didn't leave any scuff marks on them. But, the seals and gaskets and bushings all looked good. So no need to replace them at this time. I also have new brake pads coming soon as the ones on it now are done... literally almost even with the backing plate metal. I'm worried that the rotor itself will need to be replaced and that's $150 I don't want to throw at it. I need to research to see if motorcycle rotors can be turned...

I have the front fork brace coming in the mail soon, fingers crossed. That plus the other parts coming gets me that much close to getting this beast on the road. I still need to fully drain the oil and replace the filter, find a way to do a bypass test on the fuel pump to see if it is varnished or OK and pumping, and get that all back together. Once I have all the fuel lines replaced and the tank ready to go back on, I will feel a little better there. I was debating putting a cheap paper filter on the line between the pump and the carbs to catch any last little bits before they got into the carbs, but that could cause a pressure issue as the system isn't expecting a filter there. At a minimum I will pump as much gas as I can thru it to flush it prior to actually connecting the line back up to the carb filler line.

My end goal here is to get everything major checked, replaced or cleaned and reinstalled prior to spending much more cash. My concern is that once I get it to the point I am confident it won't tear itself apart starting, and I try to start it, that it will be seized inside or some other really expensive and crappy situation. Once I get the clutch bled and pushing the slave piston, I can verify if it shifts gears OK or if there might be something stuck inside. I can also do a push test to see if it is at least turning the motor while in gear or if it refused to budge. Once all these little tests are done, I will plug the battery back in and start checking electrical and then give it a start test.